While on the hunt for an old photo recently, I came across a bunch of pictures from a trip to the Early Ford V-8 Club’s meet in Batavia, New York, five years ago. As always, I was drawn to the swap meet tables where I spotted these two unique devices for a flathead Ford V-8.

On the right is the Octa-Gane Model H-44, a water injector that claimed to increase fuel mileage, eliminate detonation and overheating, and allow the use of low-octane fuels in high-compression engines. Suspiciously, a number of companies marketed it in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The earliest mention we see of the Octa-Gane is in the June 1948 Popular Science, when it’s being marketed by Continental Carburetion of Richmond, California. In late 1948, Continental moved to Berkeley (see the November 1948 Popular Mechanics) and then apparently changed its name to the Commonwealth Carburetor Corporation (see the July 1949 Popular Mechanics). The National Automotive Retail Corporation out of Venice, California, sold it in 1951 (see the May 1951 Popular Science), and by 1953, it was being marketed by the Engine Products Mfg. Co. of Los Angeles (see the June 1953 Popular Science). Somewhere along the way, Newhouse Automotive Industries of Los Angeles marketed the Octa-Gane, as did the Engine Accessories Manufacturing Company of Los Angeles (which provided an Octa-Gane for an EPA report on water-injection as an NOX reducer), and apparently it remained on the market through at least the late 1960s, when J.C. Whitney marketed it as a water/methanol injection device. Popular Science tested one of the J.C. Whitney Octa-Ganes in 1968 and reported a drop in fuel mileage and power when using it.

The “Patent Pending” cast into the cover of the Octa-Gane intrigued us, so we went searching for the relevant patent. While patents for water-injection systems for internal-combustion engines date back as far as 1917, the systems rode two major waves of popularity. The first came during World War II, with aircraft engineers trying to figure out ways to boost power and range. Possibly drawing on what they learned during that first wave, inventors then began applying the systems to automotive engines in the late 1940s, right about the time Detroit started building high-compression V-8 engines. Unsurprisingly, given the confluence of aircraft engineering and automotive tinkering, many of those second-wave patents originated in Southern California. See U.S. Patents 2676577, 2591272, 2533438, 2576196, and 2493808.

As for the siamesed Stromberg 97s next to the Octa-Gane, we have no idea.

I saw a beautiful ’40 Ford convertible in town yesterday, at a gas station. I was riding by as the owner came out from paying and got into it. I stopped and moved to the sidewalk to “adjust my backpack” but what I wanted to do was listen to it start up. I wasn’t sure if it would be a modern crate motor or a original. It was Henry’s glorious flathead V8 in all of its glory—with added dual exhausts. I don’t think there is any sound sweeter than a flathead Ford V8 in perfect condition, lol!